Jimmy Gamonet de los Heros, resident choreographer of the Miami City Ballet, is a mixmaster of an unusual sort. A neoclassicist of the Balanchine school, he's making his mark with ballets that are as likely to be inspired by computer programs as Andean marriage rituals. In fact, the combination of old and new, European and Latin American influences, is a trademark not just of the man, but of the acclaimed young company to which he belongs.

Jimmy Gamonet de los Heros, resident choreographer of the Miami City Ballet, is a mixmaster of an unusual sort. A neoclassicist of the Balanchine school, he's making his mark with ballets that are as likely to be inspired by computer programs as Andean marriage rituals. In fact, the combination of old and new, European and Latin American influences, is a trademark not just of the man, but of the acclaimed young company to which he belongs.

A regional company trying to earn national renown, Seattle's Pacific Northwest Ballet brings Kent Stowell's "Cinderella" to the Orange County Performing Arts Center (June 13-15). Stowell is best known for the production that became "Nutcracker: The Motion Picture" in 1986. Nobody dances the 19th-Century Russian classics in versions of greater choreographic authenticity than the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden--and nobody producing these ballets takes bigger gambles on design.

The Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Miami City Ballet will replace the canceled Joffrey Ballet engagement at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, the center announced Thursday. The Joffrey was to have danced April 4-9 at the center but had to cancel its national tour for financial reasons. Those exact dates, however, could not be filled by the center because companies were not available. Seattle-based PNB will dance Kent Stowell's 1994 production of "Cinderella" June 13-15.

Mark Morris will appear with his modern-dance company in San Diego as part of the San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts 1992-93 season. Morris, who has not yet announced any other Southern California appearances, will appear Nov. 17 and 18 at the Spreckels Theatre downtown. The 35-year-old one-time Seattle artist, who spent three years in Brussels at the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie, drew mixed reviews during his appearances in New York earlier this month.

Miami City Ballet is only 8 years old and it can't match the stylistic sheen or casting-in-depth of San Francisco Ballet and other seasoned regional companies. But, whatever their individual talents, nearly all the dancers in the 37-member ensemble share a common attack: distinctively incisive, emotional and energetic.

Pawing the air with her legs as if stroking them against satin sheets, Iliana Lopez managesto make the ghastly lifts in "Transtangos" into spatial autographs--a testament to her star status at Miami City Ballet. Dangling in splits upside down, she becomes all legs, stretching them wide enough to claim the Orange County Performing Arts Center as conquered territory and the Friday audience as her vassals.

Mark Morris, the devilish, irresistible bad-boy of modern dance, will provide the counterpoint to the Kirov Ballet's July appearance here in the San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts 1992-93 season. Morris, who has not yet announced any other Southern California appearances, will bring his Mark Morris Dance Group to the Spreckels Theatre downtown Nov. 17 and 18.

Miami City Ballet could be a battleground for the mother of all sibling rivalries: The troupe has not one, but two sets of identical twins. Imagine the sparks at casting time. . . . But Laurel and Amy Foster consider themselves best friends. Maribel and Mabel Modrono get along famously. "We always work like a team," said Laurel Foster. "If one twin's unhappy," Mabel Modrono said, "the other one's unhappy."

Right now, Latinos make up 45% of the citizens of Los Angeles County--and 70% of the students in the Los Angeles Unified School District--but you'd never know it from the kind of concert dance events presented on local stages. Not only is the amount of imported and home-grown Latino dance ridiculously small here, but nearly all of it is backdated folklorico spectacle, as if Latino dance audiences were somehow less invested in the here and now than anyone else.

July 9, 1995 | Laurie Horn, Laurie Horn is the dance critic for the Miami Herald.

"Free. Exciting. Energetic. Happy." Iliana Lopez, the most finely tuned of Miami City Ballet's ballerinas, is grabbing for adjectives to describe Edward Villella's 9-year-old company, which opens a three-day run Friday at the Orange County Center for the Performing Arts. The words also could describe Lopez herself. "People ask us, why didn't you go to American Ballet Theatre or New York City Ballet?"